# The Saddest of all Sad Songs **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 21, 2001, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135 "2001-01-21T16:54:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KewlKT1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ba0ec/32.png) [@KewlKT1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KewlKT1)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/1 "2001-01-21T16:54:18Z")
Eric Clapton- “If I saw You In Heaven” AND this one always brings a tear to my eye (i dont know why): Bette Midler- “Wind Beneath My Wings” ---
**Author:** ![Randy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Randy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/2 "2001-01-21T17:13:32Z")
**"I Still Cry"** ``` by, Julie Miller ``` ---
**Author:** ![Alonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Alonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alonist)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/3 "2001-01-21T17:53:52Z")
“Ellis Unit 1”: not only does it get to _me_, but Steve Earle says he sometimes has trouble getting to the end of the song when he performs in concert. Some woman I met on the phone once wondered why “Free Falling” puts a tear in my eye. Well, I’m a bad boy, and I don’t even miss her… I must admit that “Somewhere Out There”, from that Fivel movie, gets to me, too. ---
**Author:** ![cheezit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@cheezit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheezit)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/4 "2001-01-21T18:01:52Z")
“Last Kiss” by J. Frank Wilson. (60’s song) ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/5 "2001-01-21T18:22:03Z")
“Photographs and Memories” by Jim Croce. ☹ (and **no** , I don’t mean the spoof song “Photographs of Mammaries”, by Weird Al I think…) ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/6 "2001-01-21T18:23:37Z")
Tell me there’s a heaven - Chris Rea ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/7 "2001-01-21T19:48:58Z")
“Sam Stone” by John Prine (if just for the line, “There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm where all the money goes…”). Dr. J ---
**Author:** ![hypergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/49beb7/32.png) [@hypergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hypergirl)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/8 "2001-01-21T20:02:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cheezit \* > \*\*“Last Kiss” by J. Frank Wilson. (60’s song) \*\* I agree, but being the uncultured teenager that I am, I know it to be sung by Pearl Jam. But either way it never fails to make me cry. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalMuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@DigitalMuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalMuse)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/9 "2001-01-21T21:48:22Z")
What’s This Life For by Creed Also makes me cry. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/10 "2001-01-21T21:51:10Z")
“The Drugs Don’t Work” - The Verve. ---
**Author:** ![Eo\_Echo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ebca7d/32.png) [@Eo\_Echo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eo_Echo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/11 "2001-01-21T21:55:31Z")
“It Makes No Difference” by the Band. ---
**Author:** ![ThisYearsGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@ThisYearsGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisYearsGirl)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/12 "2001-01-22T04:49:14Z")
“God Only Knows”–the only Beach Boys song I can stand Tom Wait’s version of “Waltzing Matilda” “Boxing” by Ben Folds Five “Going to California” by Zeppelin ---
**Author:** ![Spritle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Spritle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spritle)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/13 "2001-01-22T12:45:13Z")
**Old Shep**. Anyone who does not cry instantly upon hearing this song has no heart and, worse, has no soul. (b’cept the Elvis version which was quite “pop” for the time. - I’m talkin’ 'bout Mac Wiseman’s version. Tear jerker for sure.) **Blind Willie McTell**. When Bob Dylan sings this song lamenting how nobody can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell, he is actually singing a very good blues tune! Sort of brings out the sadness in never being able to measure up to one’s own expectations, even when one measures up just fine. **Every Grain of Sand**. Another BD tune. This one builds on William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence” and Biblical references (i.e., “every hair is numbered”) to look at one’s faith and that which can shake it. As long as we’re on the subject of BD songs, who can truly listen to the words of **Blowin’ in the Wind** and not feel melancholy about the mistreatment of man by his brother. Gotta go listen to happy stuff now. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/14 "2001-01-22T12:48:44Z")
“I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt. About a woman who is laying next to her SO, coming to grips with the fact that he has fallen out of love with her. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/15 "2001-01-22T13:01:40Z")
The entire album SAND AND WATER by Beth Nielsen Chapman. She lost her husband to cancer and the album as a whole is a goodbye album, if only because she writes her own songs and that was what she had to write about during that time. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9bcb4/32.png) [@pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pagan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/16 "2001-01-22T15:16:10Z")
“Nobody Loves Me but My Mother,” B.B. King. (And she might be lying, too.) I think the title says it all. “My Dream,” John Lee Hooker. A simple little tune about having a dream that ‘she’ was still there, waking up, and having to face being alone. This one almost always makes my eyes water up… ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/17 "2001-01-22T17:38:58Z")
Bridge Over Troubled Water - it makes both myself and Mr2U cry. It reminds us of our fathers… ---
**Author:** ![Bottle\_of\_Smoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Bottle\_of\_Smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bottle_of_Smoke)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/18 "2001-01-22T18:00:55Z")
What – no mention of _Billy, Don’t Be a Hero_ yet? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/19 "2001-01-22T18:39:28Z")
Same Old Lang Syne - Dan Fogelberg > [@](#): > > We drank a toast to innocence, we drank a toast to now. Tried to reach beyone the emptiness, but neither one knew how. The song is so damn sad, I can’t even articulate it. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135/20 "2001-01-22T18:52:25Z")
Hank Williams “I’m so Lonesome I Could Cry” and George Strait “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-of-all-sad-songs/51135.md?page=2)